The Punic Wars
by AthenAltena
Summary: Rome and Carthage, two great powers in the Mediterranean, were destined to come into conflict 3 times to see who would survive and who would fall. Rating for crude language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

_264 BC_

The man called Carthage looked across the waters of the Mediterranean and was troubled. What had a few centuries ago been nothing more than a small settlement of soldiers had grown into something that could challenge him, and he did not like the thought of competition.

He had met this Rome several times already and had fought by his side more than once. But Carthage considered him an arrogant fool who charged into battle recklessly and without thought. Rome was a determined bastard whose reach was ever expanding, and he would not be content with just the Italian peninsula, eventually he would want more.

The thought made Carthage tighten the grip on his sword. Already the Carthaginian Senate was frothing at the mouth as Rome's borders crept ever closer to their territory. It was only a matter of time before the two nations came to blows.

It was from Sicily that the pretext came. The city of Messana was seized by a group of mercenaries who called themselves the Mamertines, who in desperation asked for assistance from both Carthage and Rome against the city of Syracuse.

Carthage once again came face to face with Rome and found that even the sight of the man made his blood boil. They said nothing, just watching each other with the wariness common among warriors, but the tension made the air crackle.

"We are allies, are we not?" Rome asked under his breath, sensing the other man's enmity. "It was together that we defeated King Pyrrhus and drove him from our lands, surely that is worth something to you."

"That was long ago," Carthage snapped. "And had I known you would grow to be such an insatiable pup I would have let Greece overrun you and take back what was hers in the first place!"

Rome's nostrils flared and his eyes widened, but he said nothing even as Carthage moved to tower over him.

"You will not have Sicily. I am the greatest naval power in the world and you are as helpless as a cat thrown overboard. You are no match for me at sea."

"Is that a challenge?" Rome asked, his eyes glittering.

"I'd love to see you try," Carthage snorted as he turned to leave.

He came to rue those words, and in time Rome came to seize Sicily and besiege the city of Syracuse, who bent the knee as soon as soon as they saw the Roman legions approaching. Many more cities soon followed, and it was clear to Carthage that though the island might be lost Rome himself could still be crushed. All he had to do was take the conflict offshore.

Soon Carthage stood confidently on the deck of his flagship and waited for the Roman fleet. He was confident that whatever victories Rome had gained on land would be undone by his inexperience at sea. Carthage watched the horizon until the first Roman ships came into view, but instead of confidence he only felt rage.

"You wolf-suckled bastard!" he cried, for he could see that the Romans had simply taken captured Carthaginian ships and copied the design. But they went one step further than that. In their twisted ingenuity they had invented a bridge they could swing between ships, allowing them to take their military tactics out to sea and deal blow after blow to the Carthaginian navy.

Carthage soon found that what Rome lacked in knowledge he made up for in raw determination, and though both sides lost hundreds of ships Rome still sent wave after wave of men, undaunted even by raids along his coast that struck close to his capital. The Carthaginian Senate knew they could not win and sued for peace, but with nothing left to bargain with the terms of the treaty cut deep. Their treasury was emptied, and colonies that had been theirs for centuries were ceded to Rome. Carthage watched this all with hands clenched at his sides.

But the worst blow was to their navy, which had once been the pride of the Empire. Rome watched smugly as Carthage was forced to torch what remained of his once proud fleet and set them to burn at sea.

"Who is the pup now?" Rome demanded, grabbing Carthage by the collar so they were face to face. "Do not forget this, for the next time you challenge me I'll take more than just your ships!" Rome threw him the ground and strode off, his head high and his chest puffed out while Carthage bit the inside of his cheek until it bled.

"This is not over…!" he hissed, for even as he spoke one general was already planning Rome's defeat. This man, Hamilcar Barca, had by his side his lion's brood of children, first among them a boy named Hannibal.

_To Be Continued…_

_----_

Notes:I'm very briefly talking about a lof of the conflict in a lot of this since otherwise we'd be here for days, but this is the gist of what went on. There are a few references in here that I'll make note of as well.

Pyrrhus of Epirus: He was a Greek who took over Sicily and soundly beat the Romans on their own land in 280 BC. He came into conflict with Carthage when he took over Sicily, which eventually lead to his retreat.


	2. Chapter 2

_218 BC_

Carthage looked out from the coast of Iberia and grinned. It had been 20 years since he had lost to Rome, but if Hannibal's plan worked that arrogant bastard would not know what hit him.

As he stood there the young Iberia tottered up and offered a goblet of wine, which Carthage took without acknowledging the boy's presence. Just as the boy was about to leave Carthage stopped him with a large hand on his shoulder and knelt down to meet his eyes.

Iberia gulped and tried to hide his shaking, for the scars from Carthage's war against him were still fresh.

"Fear not my boy," Carthage said, sensing his trepidation. "I just want to tell you that we have an opportunity, and should you join with me we will gain more than we ever imagined."

"How is that?"

Carthage smiled. "Through that young man Hannibal Barca. He is hatching a plan that will bring Rome to its knees, and should you help me the riches will be divided among us."

Iberia thought about protesting, but realized that he had little choice in the matter and merely bowed. He was nervous at the idea of going against Rome, but he feared the wrath of Carthage more.

In the spring Hannibal set out to the east with thousands of Iberian troops. Rome expected him to follow the coast immediately sent several legions after him, but Hannibal took an alternate route and lost the Roman army in the mountains. While Rome stood scratching his head and wondering how Hannibal had eluded him, the Carthaginian general was about to attempt what had been thought impossible.

Carthage looked up at the great mountains of the Alps and felt a flicker of doubt. These were lands that even Rome could not control, but Hannibal seemed confident.

"These tribes hate Rome as much as we do," he explained as they moved up the snow-covered trail. "Give them reason enough and they will join us."

Most did not, and in fact the army faced many fights and betrayals from their guides during the journey. Carthage looked up once and spotted a blond man watching him from the top of a cliff, but the man neither welcomed him nor made to attack. In all they lost about half of their army on the trip over the Alps, with about 30,000 men left by the time they reached Italian soil.

Carthage was eager to march on Rome as soon as they could, but Hannibal held him back.

"Many of the people here are still resentful of the Romans," he explained as he looked out across the plain. "And it will not take much to break the tenuous ties that bind them. Once we show them the true weakness of the Republic they will flock to us like moths to a flame and victory will be all the easier."

A group of thousands of Gauls who still bore the scars of Roman subjugation soon joined them, and once word of the Carthaginian army reached the capital Rome himself rode out at the side of one of the two consuls.

"He may have taken us by surprise, but they are weak from their mountain crossing," Rome said confidently. "And we know the Gauls well enough to beat them. This man is no threat."

He ate his words the next day. Not only had Hannibal already sacked a city and restocked his supplies, but the man possessed a military genius that Rome was not expecting. The confrontation took place on the banks of the River Trebia, where Hannibal forced the Romans to cross the freezing water in range of his slingmen, who took out many before they even reached the other bank.

While at first the battle seemed largely even, a surprise ambush by a hidden group of Hannibal's Numidian horsemen broke the Roman ranks and forced them back to the river, where the Carthaginians massacred thousands as they tried to escape. The Roman consul was gravely wounded and only saved by the efforts of his son, and Rome himself escaped by the skin of his teeth and was forced to abandon his heavy silver cuirass in the river to avoid drowning.

"How do you like that?!" Carthage shouted across the river to the retreating Rome. "This is just a taste of what you're going to get!"

Rome wrung out his wet cloak and scowled. "One battle does not decide the war!" he shouted back. "I'll get you next time!"

Both armies rested during the winter, and Carthage found that the victory had driven many more to his side and nearly doubled his army. As he looked out across the sea of tents he could not help but smile. The people of this land we eager to throw off the yoke of Rome, and he was happy to help them along.

In the spring Rome once again moved on Carthage to block his path to the capital, but Hannibal once again eluded them by taking a hidden path through a marsh. During the trek the General contracted a disease that blinded him in his right eye, but he refused to be dissuaded by it.

"An eye is nothing compared to what we will take from Rome," he explained. "It was worth it to throw them off for a time. Now we must act while we have the advantage."

His next move was to lead Rome to the shores of a lake called Trasimene, where he lured the hotheaded new consul into splitting his force in the fog, only to bring down the Libyan cavalry from the surrounding hills and obliterate the Roman forces before they had time to react.

Once again Rome barely escaped with his life by wading through the muddy water on the lake, but unlike the aftermath of the Trebia he was now simply scared. Hannibal had removed the only thing that could stop him from reaching the capital, and he was sure that the general's next act would be to burn the city to the ground.

But Hannibal did not march on Rome just then, and the Senate in a blind panic elected a man named Fabius Maximus as dictator, granting him absolute power over the army. While the previous consuls had rushed blindly into battle and been confident of victory on their own land, Fabius largely avoided Hannibal's forces and led him on game of cat-and-mouse all over Italy for the next year while the Republic tried to rebuild its shattered army. Rome watched this all with gritted teeth.

"Why do you let him ravage our lands when we could just fight him?" Rome shouted at Fabius, but the old man barely acknowledged him.

"We cannot afford another devastating loss," he said grimly. "Crops can be regrown and towns rebuilt, but we cannot let him destroy the army we have left. This man is a military genius unlike any we have ever seen, the only way to beat him is to not engage."

The Senate, however, did not heed Fabius' warnings and removed him from the dictatorship as soon as they could, replacing him with a hot-blooded consul named Varro, who marched on Hannibal as soon as he could. Rome rode alongside him with fire in his eyes. He was determined to end this now, but little did he know that this was exactly what had been expected of them.

Carthage saw the approaching army and grinned. Hannibal had once again set a genius trap for the fiery Roman troops at a place called Cannae, this time using his horsemen in conjunction with his weaker Gallic troops to draw the Romans deeper into his line while the horsemen circled to cut off their escape. It was a risky maneuver that many in Hannibal's camp had their doubts about, but the General was confident and began the day's fighting with confidence.

His strategy worked perfectly, and soon the Romans found themselves caught in a circle of death. Varro was killed in the ensuing slaughter, and the carnage was so bad that the Romans could not even recover his body in the aftermath. Hannibal lost only a few thousand, while the Roman army lost upwards of 50,000 men in a single afternoon.

Rome was nearly catatonic with shock. "He had half my number, yet he beat me! How? _How_?" he said again and again, but no matter how many times he repeated it he still could not believe it. Fabius just shook his head.

In the streets of Rome people were panicking and already planning their escape, but a young soldier named Publius Scipio, who years before had saved his father at the Trebia, kept public order with a firm hand. He conscripted every able man, including the very young and old, and turned thousands of slaves into warriors with antique armor looted from their own temples. It was a ragtag group that had no training and little cohesion, but as the only ones who stood between Hannibal and their home they mustered up all the courage available to them.

But Hannibal did not march on Rome that day or the next. In the wake of Cannae Carthage and the other generals pressed him to end it right then, but they were dismissed with a simple "I'll think about it." In the end they did not march on the city and focused on detaching other cities into their alliance, but in the ensuing months they became bogged down in defending their new allies and trying to corral the smaller Roman forces who nipped at them like stray dogs, but it proved fruitless to the point that Carthage began to think that he would never see the gates of Rome one way or the other.

Distracted by all this, some months later he looked across the waters at Iberia and could only stare in shock. Thousands of his soldiers and citizens lay dead and his colonies burnt, but worst of all Iberia was now standing next to Rome.

"Why?" Carthage cried. "Did I not treat you well?!"

Iberia smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, but your time has run out. When Rome attacked he spared my people, so I am indebted to him."

Carthage rose his fist as if to strike the boy, but withdrew and turned away. He had other things to worry about now.

Several months later Carthage stepped off the ship in the Libyan capital. Libya had long been his ally and given thousands of men to Hannibal's army, but with Rome breathing down his neck Carthage was hoping for a more formal alliance.

As he walked through the harbor he paused at the sight of a ship on the opposite dock. He'd recognize that sail anywhere. He broke into a run and rushed to the palace gate, where he saw that his suspicions had been correct. Rome was standing with Libya and chatting amiably, and both looked up when they saw him.

"My dear Carthage," Libya said warmly, holding his arms out so that the many bracelets on his arms jingled. "It is so good to see you again. I take it you have met Rome?"

"I have," Carthage replied between clenched teeth. He could not tell whether Libya was teasing him or if he really was that dense, but he dared not speak his mind and risk offending his potential ally. Libya was internally unstable due to feuding tribal kings, but he was rich and had provided Hannibal with the cavalry that had ensured his victory at Cannae.

Rome too seemed confounded by the situation and said nothing, and soon the two men found themselves seated side by side at a banquet put on by their host, who still did not acknowledge the reason for their visit.

"Prick," Carthage muttered under his breath when Libya turned away for a moment.

"Bastard," Rome replied.

The meeting ultimately ended with no new alliance for either side, so Carthage returned to Hannibal and Rome to his consul. Eventually Carthage secured Libya's alliance by marrying a Carthaginian noblewoman named Sophonisba to their king, but this would ultimately end in tragedy. For now there was an uneasy respite in hostilities, but it could not last.

Ultimately it was Hannibal who made the first move, but not for the reason expected. His brother Hasdrubal had been rushing to meet them in Italy and provide reinforcements until a Roman legion had taken him by surprise and killed him. Hannibal found this out when Hasdrubal's head was delivered to his camp late at night. In his grief Hannibal decided that there was no use waiting any longer and set off towards Rome with the intent to sack it right then and there.

Rome, meanwhile, was distracted by Scipio's plans. The young consul knew that he was unlikely to beat Hannibal on Italian soil, so his plan lay in a different direction. Carthage itself lay undefended, he explained, and the fastest way to disrupt Hannibal's march on Rome would be to make the Carthaginian senate recall him to defend his home city. Rome listened to all this quietly, but he could not shake the feelings of doubt that plagued him.

"Carthage is unfamiliar to us," he cautioned the consul. "And they have the whole of Africa behind them. Who knows what they could call up to defend them?"

Scipio thought about this and sighed. "You are right, but perhaps there is another way." His eyes suddenly glinted as an idea came to mind. "You are a brilliant man," he said, and clapped Rome on the shoulder.

Soon the sea was filled with Roman ships along the African coast, but rather than move on Carthage itself they moved further west towards Libya, where they landed and met with the exiled son of a slain Massylian king, who had allied himself with and lost his beloved Sophonisba, who was now wed a rival king who held the capital city.

Together they made their camp outside of the city and challenged Carthage and Libya to make peace with them, but in the night Scipio's men set fire to the Carthaginian camp and killed those who were not claimed by the flames. In the morning they took the city, robbing Carthage of its greatest remaining ally. The new Massyli king took Sophonisba as his wife, but when Rome insisted that she be given up as a prisoner of war she killed herself rather than be paraded through the streets in shackles. Despite this tragedy, Libya was now fully on the side of Rome. What Hannibal himself had not been able to accomplish Scipio pulled off in a great coup, and now just as Rome had nothing to stand between it and Hannibal he had a clear shot at the heart of Carthage.

At the same time Hannibal had reached the walls of Rome, but though his men heckled the citizens on the top of the wall he could tell that the city would not fall to him. Perched atop an elephant he rode with Carthage along the wall and gazed up at the people watching them.

"I moved too late," he muttered to Carthage. "After Cannae they were on the brink of collapse, but I gave them too much time to recover. They are not panicking, and we have neither the men nor the means to scale those walls."

Carthage frowned and looked at the General. "But we have come too far to give up! Perhaps reinforcements will come yet and allow us to breach the wall."

Hannibal shook his head. "No, the fact that the people on that wall do not even think to surrender means that they have won. A people that do not think themselves defeated cannot truly lose a war, and it is in that way that they have beaten us."

When word reached them of Scipio's machinations in Libya Hannibal finally withdrew his troops to the coast and began the long haul back to their homeland. It had been 15 years since Hannibal's campaign had began and even longer since he had been home, and when they landed Carthage saw the confusion in the man's eyes at how unfamiliar the place of his birth had become in the years since his departure.

"I left here when I was but a boy," he explained as they moved through the streets. "I promised my father that I would fight Rome until the day I died, but now I have spent more time on their soil than in my own home," he sighed. "This land is strange to me now."

In the Senate, Carthage and Hannibal watched as the entire war was blamed on the General, until Hannibal himself stepped up and pulled a senator off the platform to end his tirade against the Barca family. But as tempted as it was to simply quit, Hannibal had one last mission.

He rode out with Carthage by his side on the plain of Zama, where Scipio camped his army in view of the capital city. He clearly intended to destroy the city, but perhaps he could be talked into a treaty before more blood was shed.

As the two men talked Rome smirked over his leader's shoulder at Carthage.

"How does it feel to have your fortune turned on its head?" he muttered.

Carthage just watched him steadily. "It is just the nature of fortune. Had things been different you would be where I am now, with nothing but the will of one man between you and annihilation. We can end this now and spare ourselves more bloodshed, but if you really wish I will fight until the last man to defend my home, just as you would."

Rome smirked again at that. "Then a fight it is."

Hannibal himself could not agree to the terms Scipio put forth, especially the provision that hundreds of Carthaginian children be surrendered to Rome as political hostages, including Hannibal's own son. Hannibal, who by now was well into his 40s, tried to warn the young Scipio that the battle could go either way, but the Roman consul refused to listen and walked away from the peace talks.

With that the final battle of the Second Punic war began, and Rome once again showed his resourcefulness. By adopting the same strategy Hannibal had used at Cannae he encircled the Carthaginian army and began the slaughter in haste, and rendered the war elephants useless by positioning his men in lanes that could easily move to avoid the beasts. Hannibal himself ran as soon as the outcome of the battle became obvious, and with their last army gone the Carthaginian Senate was forced to sue for peace, this time adopting a treaty that made the previous war's outcome look painless.

Rome once again stood before Carthage, who knelt on the ground in what remained of his armor.

"You are to have no colonies outside of this immediate area," Rome began. "And you cannot make war inside or outside Africa without my permission. Your navy is to be burnt in full view of the city, and you must pay reparations for 50 years to remind you and your people that you have lost. Is that clear?"

Carthage nodded. While at the end of this first war he had been able to claim that he had been cheated from his rightful victory, now with a Roman army stationed outside the city walls he could not deny that he had lost.

But hope was not completely gone from him. He had more avenues for success than just war, and his people and country still existed.

Seeing this, Rome kicked him one last time in the face before he turned away, leaving the other man bleeding on the ground. Carthage watched him go and turned back to his land with a new determination. He had lost again, but as long as he existed he was not truly defeated.

_To be Continued…_

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**Notes:** So as not to keep us here forever this is a _very_ brief overview of the major events, and even with so much cut out this was still longer than I had intended. If you want a full account of the entire war I suggest finding a book or article to fill in areas I skipped over.

Iberia (Spain) was not a unified country at the time, but for the sake of the narration he's just one person. As far as any country is concerned it really should have been multiple tribes with a person representing each, but we can just assume that they do exist and just do not appear in the story.

The blond man seen on the mountain was originally intended to be Germania, but in reality Hannibal would have been too far south to come into contact with him. We'll just consider him an unnamed representative of the Gallic tribes and leave it at that.

Libya should technically be called Numidia, but as there was more than one group of people who answered to that name in the area I called him Libya instead to avoid confusion.

The awkward meeting between Rome and Carthage in Libya really happened. The swearing did not, as far as the historians can tell, though I am sure that it reflects what was on the minds of the ambassadors.


	3. Chapter 3

_151 BC_

Carthage grinned as he tossed a few silver coins fell into a chest at his feet, since this was the last of the reparations he owed Rome. He looked at his country and couldn't help but feel proud. In the 50 years since he had lost to Rome they had recovered, and despite the humiliating loss long ago he could not help but feel that in some ways he was now better off.

With no colonies to spend his resources on his building and agricultural efforts had been redirected to his homeland, and land that had once been barren wasteland now contained fields and orchards that rivaled Rome's. Within the city walls new crafts and arts flourished, and he had even built a magnificent double-harbor that allowed for ships to move in and out of his port with ease. Money flowed freely through his citizens' hands, and though they could not forget the humiliation of defeat it had been tempered by wealth.

He sat down on a rock at the top of a hill overlooking his city and sighed. The last half-century had not been easy on him, but now that the end was in sight he could look to the future. As per the treaty he had been forced to go to the Roman senate whenever he wished to make war, and this had annoyed him. Especially since Massinissa, the man who antagonized him, was the same king who had years before taken Libya from him and given it to the Romans. The disputes had almost inevitably ended with the Senate siding against Carthage, and while this infuriated Carthage, he did not want to give Rome and excuse to defeat him a third time.

He closed his eyes and sighed. If he stayed within the boundaries of the treaty he would be fine. He had been telling himself this for years and believed it, because to think otherwise would only cause him despair.

Little did he know that Rome wanted to have his war with or without just cause. Just as Carthage had once looked across the waters of the Mediterranean and been concerned by his neighbor, now Rome turned his eye on his former enemy and was troubled. The last 50 years had been very good to him, and with the addition of Iberia and many of the Hellenistic territories he had grown into a full-fledged empire whose grip on the region would be hard to shake.

But he was not satisfied. With every move he made to conquer a new region his gaze kept drifting back to that lone city on the tip of Africa. 50 years before that city had sent a general to the gates of his city and nearly destroyed him, and it was only by a miracle that he had survived. Hannibal himself had been dead for years now and had killed himself rather than be captured after years of running from Roman legions, but Rome and his citizens had never forgotten how close they had come to destruction at the hands of one man and a force that was only a fraction of their own.

One Senator in particular, a man named Cato, had made it his personal mission to convince the citizens that Carthage needed to be destroyed. He took to ending all of his speeches, no matter the subject, with this declaration. While for a long time he was considered at most harmless and at worst annoying, Cato finally made himself heard with a simple gesture in the Senate.

Rome watched as the old balding man stepped up to the platform. Cato straightened, and with a flourish let a single plump fig drop out of his toga and onto the floor.

"I ask you," he said as he lifted the fruit so all could see. "When, do you suppose, this fruit was plucked from the tree? Surely it must be but a few days for it to stay so ripe.

"Know then!" he thundered so that he whole chamber could hear. "That this fig was plucked at Carthage but the day before yesterday, so near is the enemy to our walls!"

Rome felt his blood run cold at this, and soon the chamber was alive with nervous murmurs. But Cato was not done yet.

"Now they have repaid their debt to us they are of no use to us. We have kept them broken for 50 years, but where else will that money go now that they have paid us off? To their army, that's where! Either we strike them first and prevent further trouble or wait until they come knocking at our doors again!"

Rome listened to all this and felt himself nodding. But even as he heard Cato warn of the possibility of Carthage rising again to fight them he had another thought. He had seen Carthage's fields and orchards on many occasions since the last war, and more than money he wanted those most of all. He now had nearly 500,000 people within the city walls and had more coming each year, and he feared that soon he would be unable to sustain his population purely with crops grown solely on Italian soil. Iberia was still largely uncultivated, but acquiring Carthage could kill two birds with one stone.

"How will we do it then?" he asked. "They have not provoked us and have stayed within the treaty! We cannot make war without cause!"

Cato turned to him and let a sly smile cross his lips.

"Who is to say that we will do it? I believe our dear Massinissa still owes us a favor."

Shortly thereafter Carthage, who had moved outside the city to a nearby town, was woken by the sound of horses and the yelling of warriors outside the walls. He leaped to his feet and grabbed a nearby spear, and upon looking out the window saw his onetime ally Libya riding with a large cavalry force.

"What treachery is this?!" he cried as the group turned and circled the walls again.

Libya smiled up at him and shrugged. "Just following orders. It's what my king wants."

Carthage stormed off to consider his options. The thought of once again having to trek off to Rome made his blood boil, and by the time he returned Libya could very well have taken the capital. In any case he was unlikely to win the permission of the Roman Senate this time if all the others had been any indication. He grit his teeth and looked over his shoulder at the soldiers surrounding him, many of whom wore the same expressions of confusion and irritation.

"Alright, all of you!" he cried as he tapped the shaft of his spear on the ground to get their attention. "We don't have time to wait for Rome! Muster up everything you have and let's repel these no-good invaders!"

His words sent up a hurrah from the citizens, and within a short time he had a force of 25,000 at his back. They engaged the Libyan cavalry with the ferocity of a people denied the ability to make war on their own, but the same cavalry that had years before been the key to Hannibal's victories crushed the Carthaginian forces underfoot. But rather than stick around to loot the town Libya withdrew just as quickly as he had arrived, leaving Carthage alone to nurse his wounds and plan his next move.

As he sat on the ground to catch his breath he did not expect Rome's foot to connect with the back of his head, and the blow left him sprawling on the ground.

"Look what we have here," Rome said with a sly smirk. "Making war without permission. My my, you have been a naughty boy lately, haven't you?"

"Was I supposed to just let him slaughter my people?!" Carthage spat as he struggled to his feet. "Would you not have done the same?"

Rome didn't respond, and let his eyes roam the rich countryside. "I don't think you realize just what you have done. Libya is my ally, and by making war against him you have hurt me, for I protect my friends."

He looked back at Carthage and began to stroke the small patch of hair on his chin. "My citizens are crying for blood, so I could make war on you right now. But I'm a fair man, so I'll give you a chance to satisfy my people and repent for your sins."

Carthage was about to protest, but he was in a precarious situation. Above all he wanted to protect his people, it was the only reason he had gone to battle with Libya and risk the Roman wrath. Though it pained him to do so, he knelt in front of Rome.

"I beg you, have mercy. We have no intention to make war, all we want is to live in our homes and continue our culture. Surely a wise man like yourself can respect that!"

Rome nodded, but there was nothing but scorn in his eyes. Already in his mind he was drawing up plans for the battle that would rid him of this man once and for all.

For two years Carthage made every concession possible to Rome and agreed to pay Libya back 50 years worth of restitution, though the very thought of paying money to a man who had not only betrayed him but provoked him to give Rome and excuse to start another war made him want to rip the other man's throat out.

But soon things went from bad to worse when the city of Utica, seeing that Carthage was quickly losing ground, defected to the Roman side. This crushed Carthage, for Utica had been one of his most ancient trading ports, and losing it was like losing his very heart. Utica had been rebelling against him since the first war, but to lose it at this critical hour hit him harder than any financial loss.

But the worst news was yet to come. Rome had officially declared war and sent a messenger only a few days ahead of the navy, so when the word reached the capital city panic of on an unprecedented scale erupted in the streets.

Carthage was nearly catatonic with shock. Any moment he expected to see the sails of the Roman ships on the horizon, and with his meager army and navy he would be crushed in an instant. He once again found himself before Rome pleading for mercy, but the other man seemed entirely unmoved by the tears streaming his face.

"Please listen to reason!" Carthage cried. "Do not do this and attack a people who wish you no harm! We will do anything, _anything_ to appease you! I'm begging you!"

Rome looked at his fingernails absentmindedly.

"Anything, you say? Perhaps I should give you a chance, if you are indeed no longer a warlike people." He fixed his eyes on the other man with a steely glare. "If you truly mean it, give me 300 of your noble children to ensure your cooperation."

Carthage was speechless at his request. Political hostages were a regular part of diplomacy, but this was absurd! But he soon realized that he was in no position to negotiate, and if he did not comply far more than 300 children would die. With a heavy heart he agreed, and when it came time for the children to be taken away he could not hide his tears as he watched as children were torn from their mothers. The women on the docks collapsed in grief or even swam after the ships rather than lose sight of their children until many of them drowned, and their cries echoed through the city for days. The only reason Carthage was able to bear it was because he believed it to be the only way.

But this was not enough, Rome came to him next no more understanding but with an even greater demand.

"If you really are such a peaceful people," he began with his usual bluntness. "Surely you do not need all those weapons?"

To this Carthage complied, and within days the citizens had turned over every set of armor, every dagger and ever siege weapon they could find. The city was now defenseless and completely at the mercy of Rome, but believing their masters to be just the people complied and fervently hoped that it would be enough.

But Rome was not and would not be satisfied. He had wanted to break Carthage's spirit, but he only needed to look at the faces of his citizens to see that the same determination that had driven Hannibal across the Alps was still there. But he had one last demand that he knew would either completely break Carthage or force them to the open war he wanted.

"This city," he began. "It is a place with so many memories, so many wars and conquests. Don't you think it's a bit stuffy now, bogged down in all of that?"

Carthage blinked, not understanding what Rome was getting at just yet.

"What I mean to say is," Rome said, sweeping his arm out to indicate the giant harbor. "Is that surely this isn't really necessary to you anymore. I hear you've grown quite good at agriculture in these past years, a move inland might do you some good. Say, 10 miles or so. As for this place, perhaps a fresh start is needed, a rebuilding of sorts."

Carthage's eyes widened as it finally sunk in. The image of the city in flames leaped into his mind, and it was this that awoke the same ferocity that had led him to the walls of Rome all those years ago.

"Like Hell!" he cried. "I might as well ask you to abandon Palatine Hill! I will not give up my very lifeblood!"

Rome smirked, sensing that his goal was near. "This is my last offer, there will be no turning back from this."

"You never intended to settle this peacefully, you fucking liar!" Carthage rose to his feet and spat in Rome's face. "All of this, taking my children, my weapons, and now my city, has been nothing but a farce! Hannibal at least had the honesty to declare his intentions, but all you can do is lie and trick your way into war, the only thing you know how to do! You are can do nothing but destroy those that oppose you! You are no empire, you're just a gaping maw with an unquenchable appetite for conquest!"

Rome just blinked at this. "Are you done?"

"We are through!" Carthage stormed off behind his walls and let the gates slam shut behind him. "If it's a war you want, go right ahead! You'll see how hard a people fight with their backs against the wall, and we'll take as many of you as we can to Hell!"

With that the Third Punic War began, and for a time the high city walls held against the invaders. The entire time Carthage stood on his wall and heckled Rome while his people used every available resource to strengthen their city, up to women cutting off their hair to make strings for bows and catapult ropes and nobles melting down precious artifacts to make swords and shields.

"I am doing this for the same reasons you are," Rome yelled up one day as Carthage paced along the wall. "Perhaps if you understood this it would not have come to this."

"So now you're blaming this on me?" Carthage yelled back. "You claim that you're 'conquering the world in self-defense'?! Is this how you will justify the destruction of a whole people, a whole culture, just so you can sleep at night?"

Rome looked at him with steely eyes. "I will do whatever I need to if it insures my people's safety."

"And what of my people?" Carthage cried as he leaned over the wall. "Do you expect us to just roll over so you can kill every last one of us? A century ago I stood where you stand, but look at me now! Have you forgotten how quickly fortune turned against me? Next it could be _you_ who begs for your life!"

"I do not bow to anyone, not even fortune." Rome said, unmoved. "I will destroy anything that tries to stop me, be it you or whoever else dares to stand in the way of my world."

Carthage shook his head as he watched the other man.

"If that is true, I think your world will be a very lonely place."

The stalemate had to break, and in a cruel twist of fate the one to lead the first Roman legions over the walls was adopted grandson of Scipio Africanus, the man who had won the last war. The 3 year siege had been hard on the Carthaginian people and left many starving and ill, so while they had spirit they could not fight evenly against the well fed Romans.

The Legions worked their way up the city, burning and killing for six days. They destroyed houses by the block and watched as the corpses of those who had been hiding within them came tumbling down with the timbers, and those who tried to flee were tossed into trenches or trampled by horses. The Romans on foot scrambled over rooftops and walkways, slaying anyone in their path and setting fire to anything that would burn. It was not just an invasion, it was the absolute destruction of a people and a way of life.

When Scipio finally reached the top of the Byrsa the remaining citizens surrendered. Scipio allowed 50,000 of them to leave and made the commanding Carthaginian general watch as they burned the temple to the ground. The General's wife was so ashamed of her husband that she slew her children in front of him and then threw their bodies and herself into the fire.

The Roman soldiers stripped all remaining treasure from the city and destroyed what could not be carried away. Carthage had been there for over 700 years, but all that he was and had been was gone within a matter of days.

Those people who had been spared were either displaced or sold into slavery. When the last of them left the gate, the nation of Carthage was no more.

Carthage lay clutching his heart while Rome stood tall with sword in hand and watched as the life drained from him, but to his surprise Carthage managed a smile.

"What's so funny?" he demanded, and Carthage lifted his head to look at him.

"You don't realize that by doing this you have signed your own death warrant!" he laughed, but it was desperate and pained.

"Nonsense," Rome said as he sheathed his sword.

Carthage smiled ruefully. "That's what you think now, but just wait. I can see your future. You will be great, perhaps the greatest the world has ever known, but how long can that last?" He coughed, and blood began to trickle out of the corner of his mouth.

"What have I said again and again? I have stood where you stand, look at how powerful I used to be, and look at me now! By fighting me you have changed yourself too much. All the money, slaves, and power you have gained cannot do anything but change who you are at your core. I know you will not be satisfied until the world itself bends the knee to you, but at what cost?"

He smiled, looking oddly at peace as his body began to disappear like smoke in the wind.

"Mark my words," he whispered. "You have beaten me, but I will destroy you."

And with that the man known as Carthage faded from existence, leaving only Rome to stand as a great power in the Mediterranean. But Rome did not feel victorious, instead the words of Carthage hung heavy in his chest. Deep down he knew that was Carthage had said was true, but he ignored it and instead turned his gaze elsewhere towards new lands to conquer and people to subjugate.

He would rule the known world for over 500 years, but even his great empire would someday come crashing down.

_The End_

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**Notes: **I tried to get the countries involved again in this chapter since they were mostly hangers-on in the last chapter, so hopefully this made up for it.

Cato's speech is paraphrased from Pliny's account of the Third Punic War. As to how accurate it is, no one knows. It's likely that the fig was not actually from Carthage and that it was just a ploy, but it's generally agreed that it worked and helped instigate the war.

I decided early on that aside from a few colorful phrases I'd generally abstain from swearing, but I think Carthage's usage of "fucking" in context was the only way I could have had him respond. Consider that the single f-bomb needed to keep it under PG-13 (not counting this explanation).

This story was inspired by Dan Carlin of _Hardcore History_ and his Punic Nightmares series, which got me interested in this period. He deserves credit for directing me to sources about it and for providing inspiration as to making this an engaging story. If you are a fan of history I suggest looking him up, he does a great job and really seems to love the subject matter.


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